The discovery that the human brain continues to produce new neurons in adulthood challenged a major dogma in the field of neuroscience, but the role of these neurons in behavior and cognition is still not ...

Lights, sound, action: we are constantly learning how to incorporate outside sensations into our reactions in specific situations. In a new study, brain scientists have mapped changes in communication between ...

A process previously thought to be mere background noise in the brain has been found to shape the growth of neurons as the brain develops, according to research from the MRC Centre for Developmental Neurobiology ...

What determines receptivity or rejection towards potential sexual partners? For people, there are many factors that play a part, appearance, culture, age, are all taken into account. But what part does the ...

(Medical Xpress)—A team of bio-researchers with members affiliated with institutions in the U.K., Switzerland and Hong Kong, has found that neurons in the primary visual cortex of mice listen to just a ...

Research by a team of scientists from Cologne, Munich and Mainz has shown an unprecedented degree of connectivity reorganization in newly-generated hippocampal neurons in response to experience, suggesting their direct contribution ...

Neurons in the brain are wired like a social network, report researchers from Biozentrum, University of Basel. Each nerve cell has links with many others, but the strongest bonds form between the few cells ...

Although natural selection is often thought of as a force that determines the adaptation of replicating organisms to their environment, Harvard researchers have found that selection also occurs at the level ...

A new tool developed at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus lets scientists shine a light on an animal's brain to permanently mark neurons that are active at a particular time. The ...

Amyloid—an abnormal protein whose accumulation in the brain is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease—starts accumulating inside neurons of people as young as 20, a much younger age than scientists ever imagined, ...

The "munchies," or that uncontrollable urge to eat after using marijuana, appear to be driven by neurons in the brain that are normally involved in suppressing appetite, according to a new study by Yale School ...

Using multiphoton imaging, scientists are now able to move beyond characterizing the properties of individual cells to investigate how communication among neurons changes over the course of development. In ...

Every day we make decisions based on predicting what someone else will do - from deciding whether the driver approaching an intersection will stop for the red light to determining whether a particular negotiation ...

Neuron

A neuron (pronounced /ˈnjʊərɒn/ N(Y)OOR-on, also known as a neurone or nerve cell) is an excitable cell in the nervous system that processes and transmits information by electrochemical signalling. Neurons are the core components of the brain, the vertebrate spinal cord, the invertebrate ventral nerve cord, and the peripheral nerves. A number of specialized types of neurons exist: sensory neurons respond to touch, sound, light and numerous other stimuli affecting cells of the sensory organs that then send signals to the spinal cord and brain. Motor neurons receive signals from the brain and spinal cord and cause muscle contractions and affect glands. Interneurons connect neurons to other neurons within the same region of the brain or spinal cord. Neurons respond to stimuli, and communicate the presence of stimuli to the central nervous system, which processes that information and sends responses to other parts of the body for action. Neurons do not go through mitosis, and usually cannot be replaced after being destroyed, although astrocytes have been observed to turn into neurons as they are sometimes pluripotent.